The best genre-busting books on global leadership capabilities needed now

To the best of my recollection, the word ‘leadership’ doesn’t appear in this book.

Yet, since I first encountered it in a Harvard Business School doctoral seminar on leadership—and ignored numerous assignments because I couldn’t put it down—I have recommended it to countless professionals.

Too often, leadership is presented as a disembodied (cap)ability, unmoored from its organizational context.

Philosopher Hofstadter and computer scientist Dennett’s remarkable collection of articles includes both fairy tales (yes!) and Alan Turing’s essay defining artificial intelligence. Collectively, they explore not just the “self and soul” in the sub-title but also how humans interact with organizations and technology.

This book taught me leadership isn’t about being a puppeteer. Each of the newest developments in artificial intelligence has reminded me that I must re-read this book.

Regardless of all else they do, leaders make decisions.

This book analyzes the October 1962 crisis that almost caused a nuclear war. Entwining theory and empirical evidence, it dissects decision-making at three levels. The first is the style books and movies adopt: “This great man saved…” (Isn’t it almost always about men?).

Noting this approach’s flaws, it retells the story discussing why processes in organizations (like the different branches of the government—or companies) “see” “reality” in ways that preclude sharp changes in desired outcomes.

Finally, it addresses how and why negotiation and politics shape outcomes, and why a leader’s ability to persuade is vitally important.

If you’ve ever wondered why even “good” leaders ignore “obvious” facts, or make decisions that have predictably terrible consequences, read this book.

Read this book if you say, “Let’s find a win-win solution.”

Sadly, most aspiring leaders misuse and abuse the term “win-win.” Instead of considering it a strategic option that should be thoughtfully applied, they treat it as a moral virtue. They then espouse win-win while striving for what I call “win-no-lose”—the hope that “we” win but “they” don’t realize they lost.

This makes building coalitions and collaborating terribly difficult precisely at the time in history when we desperately need to do these well. The book is full of surprising insights (like why turning the other cheek—advocated by most religions—doesn’t work).

It also teaches (aspiring) leaders how a critical mass of people who believe in cooperation can transform their organizations even if their peers don’t agree with them.

I often pose a simple thought experiment: “How many renowned 20th century CEOs created something new to the world? Now, how may renowned 21st century CEOs haven’t done so?”

The answer, in both cases, is near zero. Our organizations are moving from being productivity-focused (doing more with less) to creativity-focused (giving form to something that doesn’t exist). Most managers and aspiring leaders are clueless about this profound change even though they will probably fail if they don’t make this shift.

Roberto argues that six flawed beliefs—such as in benchmarking and in focused execution—preclude creativity and provides tools to help reinvent moribund organizations.

On spotting an unidentifiable object on the African Savanna, a human ancestor would have been better off assuming it was a cheetah and escaping.

The alternative—staying in place while pondering whether it was merely a rock—could have killed him. Nobel Laurette Kahneman’s easy-to-read bestselling book argues that unsurprisingly, the modern human brain has evolved to “think fast” most of the time (“System 1”).

However, to make sense of the Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, and Ambiguous (VUCA) modern world, humans must engage their thoughtful System 2 brains so they can “think slow.”

Aspiring leaders who don’t master these widely accepted ideas from brain science will almost inevitably rely largely on System 1 thinking and make disastrous decisions.